Doctors Fight for Wounded Soldier’s Sight

Doctors are fighting to save the eyesight of an IDF soldier who was seriously wounded last Thursday in a terrorist attack near Gaza.

Dr. Ehud Davidson, director of Soroka hospital, said Sunday morning that soldier Ahiya Klein remains in serious condition, but that his condition is stable and that he is expected to live.

“His injury is mostly burns and the main problem is with his vision. It’s a little too early to say which way things will go because he under anesthesia, but we hope for an improvement in the upcoming days,” he said.

Klein is from the town of Kfar Etzion, a kibbutz (cooperative community) in the Gush Etzion bloc south of Jerusalem. A call to prayer Sunday gave his Hebrew name as Ahiya ben [son of] Nira.

The call to prayer stated that the wounded soldier has lost one eye, and that doctors are fighting to keep his second eye.

Dr. Davidson reported that the other soldiers who were injured along with Klein are all in good condition following treatment. “We are optimistic,” he stated.

The soldiers were wounded during an operation to destroy a terrorist tunnel from Gaza. A drill that the soldiers were using set off a powerful explosive charge which sent a shock wave out of the tunnel, wounding several.